Five Resources for Nonprofit Volunteer Programs

Nancy White tagged me to participate in an interesting meme.

"What five resources - online or otherwise - would you point people to, if you wanted to give them an entry into your field of expertise?"

One of the aspects of the nonprofit consulting that I do is to help nonprofits to set up volunteer programs. Here are five resources I would recommend to someone who wanted to become a Manager Volunteers for a nonprofit:

Cypbervpm list serv An international discussion group for volunteer managers.

Jayne Cravens * Coyote Communications and Jayne's Blog. If you have a question about nonprofit volunteer management, Jayne has probably covered it on her site or blog. She helped to set up the United Nations Online Volunteering Program.


Service Leader ServiceLeader.org is a project of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin. It has tons of information about volunteering. I particularly like its virtual volunteering section.

VolunteerMatch If you only have time to list your volunteer opportunities in one place, list them here. I guarantee you will get takers.

Campus Compact Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 950 college and university presidents - representing some 5 million students - dedicated to promoting community service, civic engagement, and service-learning in higher education. It is a great starting point for information about service learning and to find out what colleges and universities in your area have service learning programs. I love placing college students in service learning positions. It is a win-win situation all around.

Service learning is different than just volunteering (where the student is giving something to the client) or interning (where the organization is in many ways giving something (experience, resume item) to the student. Service learning is really a partnership between the student, the organization and the professor.

Here is a definition from the Campus Compact site:

Service-learning is a teaching method which combines community service with academic instruction as it focuses on critical, reflective thinking and civic responsibility. Service-learning programs involve students in organized community service that addresses local needs, while developing their academic skills, sense of civic responsibility, and commitment to the community

I hope that is helpful and now I would like to tag three women bloggers with three very different careers:

Abby to list 5 resources for becoming a school garden educator.

Jory to list 5 resources for being a freelance writer.

And Nedra Weinreich to list 5 resources for becoming a social marketer.

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